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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

NICE issues new guidelines on depression

NICE (the U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) has issued new guidelines on the treatment of depression. The guidelines say that the evidence for using counselling is 'very limited' and that it should only be used for people with persistent mild-moderate depression who do not want to take antidepressants or have cognitive behavioural therapy. The guidelines also say that antidepressants should not be used to treat persistent mild depression unless other treatments have not worked, the patient has a history of moderate or severe depression or symptoms have persisted for at least two years.